The closed training match was held at the Arms Park on Thursday evening and it wasn't long before Harry Robinson and Dan Fish combined well, with both showing good pace, to put Robinson in the corner.

The training match was a great opportunity for youngsters to show what they could do with Cory Allen playing inside centre. Richie Rees and Gareth Davies started at half backs with young Pontypridd scrum half Lewis Jones coming on for Rees.

The front row consisted of Ryan Harford and John Yapp alongside Kristian Dacey at Hooker, with Lewis Smout also having a chance to play at prop. It was good to see James Down back from injury playing in the second row alongside Deiniol Jones with the Backrow of Michael Paterson at Blindside, Thomas Young at Openside and Andries Pretorius at Eight, proving to be very effective.

Naturally the players looked a bit rusty with no support for Dacey when he broke and a couple of passes going astray.

Casey Laulala and Xavier Rush were the water carriers for the evening providing words of encouragement for the youngsters.

With the Blues coaches keen to see as many players as possible in action they made 15 changes at half time.

Rhys Downes and Rhys Patchell teamed up at half back with Richard Smith and Corey Allen at Centre and Tom James and Alex Cuthbert on wings.

Wales Under 20's Captain Macauley Cooke teamed up with Deiniol Jones in the second row with Josh Navidi, Maama Molitika and Ellis Jenkins in the Backrow. T Rhys Thomas who has recovered from his hip injury was at hooker with Nathan Trevett and Sam Hobbs propping.

The training match saw a number of set pieces with the young forwards proving more than capable in the line outs and scrums.

It was a worthwhile exercise and one that the coaches certainly learnt more about their players for the forthcoming season. Speaking afterwards Justin Burnell said,

"It was most definitely worth doing."

"What came across to me, from a coaching point of view, was, irrelevant to who was on the field they all knew their systems and the structures, obviously there is still a lot to work on but it was massive step forward."

"It's quite nice when you look at someone like Michael Paterson whose answer when asked where you want to play was, 'As long as I'm on the field I don't mind'".

"He played four, five and six, Maama and Andries both played six and eight so it was evident they still knew the structure despite playing in different positions."

"The first thing that jumped out for me was we had youngsters such as Ellis Jenkins and Thomas Young out on the pitch and you'd never think they were 18 or 19 years of age such was their maturity. I thought they were outstanding."